China has had a remarkable period of rapid growth shifting from a centrally planned to a market based economy. Today, China is an upper middle-income country that has complex development needs, where the Bank continues to play an important development role.
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Rail intermodal logistics, the movement
of containerized cargo from origin to destination where a
portion of the journey takes place on rail, have gained
significance... Show More + in North America over the past 10 to 15 years
based on cost and operational efficiency. In China, however,
the story has thus far been different. Considering the
length-of-haul and commodity characteristics of Chinas
manufacturing sector, the country has a persistently low
incidence of rail intermodal participation in domestic and
international supply chains. We find that the binding
constraints behind the low incidence of rail intermodal
services in China are most likely to be found on the supply
side, not the demand side of the equation. Specifically, the
regulatory and institutional environment, which regulate
freight tariffs and provides little or no flexibility for
China Railway Corporation (CRC) to tailor services to
customer needs, is at the root of this challenge. This note
outlines the success of railways in North America in (a)
tailoring rail intermodal service offerings based on
customer needs and willingness to pay; and (b) collaborating
with other logistics service providers so as to concentrate
on their core (rail transportation) competency, while
leaving other segments of the end-to-end intermodal supply
chain to those most efficient in those segments. The current
policy and economic environment facing CRC seems favorable
to pursuing reforms towards adopting similar practices. Show Less -

The development of wind-and
solar-generating capacity is growing rapidly around the
world as policy makers pursue various energy policy
objectives. This paper will describe... Show More + the challenges in
integrating wind and solar generation, the lessons learned,
and recommended strategies from both operating experience
and integration studies. Case studies on the experience with
wind and solar integration in China, Germany, and Spain are
also included in this paper. The paper is organized as
follows. First section summarizes worldwide wind and solar
development, the challenges in integrating wind and solar
generation, and some of the lessons learned from studies
designed to evaluate the impact of higher levels of wind and
solar generation and also from the operational experience in
some countries with larger amounts of renewable energy. The
second section summarizes some of the solutions for
incorporating higher levels of wind and solar capacity into
short-term system operations. This section also explains
basic methodologies to implement system operations studies
to understand the impacts of variability in system
operation. The third section explains the contribution of
variable renewables to long-term supply adequacy-commonly
called 'firm' power-and the relationship of this
to long-term reserves; it also explores how these issues can
be incorporated into long-term planning or adequacy
assessments. Overall, the variability of wind power
generation adds to the variability on the grid in most time
scales, and a key question that wind integration studies
must address is whether there is enough existing capability
on the grid to manage that increased variability, or whether
new sources, such as new generation or increased levels of
demand response, must be added to manage that variability. Show Less -

The phenomenal development of railways
in China has brought real economic benefits to its people
and businesses but, with the benefits, an environment,
already buckling... Show More + from the dizzying economic growth of the
country, has been impacted. International experience
demonstrates that environmental impacts can be effectively
mitigated and the worst avoided if appropriate measures are
taken. How has China responded to the profound environmental
challenges of its rail program? This paper draws on almost
30 years of World Bank's support to railway development
in China in order to attempt to answer this question.
Environmental practices such as avoidance of sensitive sites
through alternative analysis, design of tunnel-bridge-tunnel
schemes, application of innovative slope stabilization
measures, attention to community connectivity, and
incorporation of landscape design are noteworthy examples of
effective measures routinely employed by the Ministry of
Railways. At the same time, challenges remain in addressing
cumulative impacts, improving the quality of public
consultation and the integration of social mitigation
measures with those meant to protect the environment. Show Less -

The country profile for China is based
on data from the enterprise surveys conducted by the World
Bank in 2012. The enterprise surveys focus on the many
factors that... Show More + shape the decisions of firms to invest. These
factors can be accommodating or constraining and play an
important role in whether a country will prosper or not. An
accommodating business environment is one that encourages
firms to operate efficiently. Such conditions strengthen
incentives for firms to innovate and to increase
productivity, key factors for sustainable development. A
more productive private sector, in turn, expands employment
and contributes taxes necessary for public investment in
health, education, and other services. In contrast, a poor
business environment increases the obstacles to conducting
business activities and decreases a country's prospects
for reaching its potential in terms of employment,
production, and welfare. Enterprise surveys are conducted by
the World Bank and its partners across all geographic
regions and cover small, medium, and large companies. The
surveys are applied to a representative sample of firms in
the non-agricultural economy. The sample is consistently
defined in all countries and includes the entire
manufacturing sector, the services sector, and the
transportation and construction sectors. Public utilities,
government services, health care, and financial services
sectors are not included in the sample. Enterprise surveys
collect a wide array of qualitative and quantitative
information through face-to-face interviews with firm
managers and owners regarding the business environment in
their countries and the productivity of their firms. The
topics covered in enterprise surveys include the obstacles
to doing business, infrastructure, finance, labor,
corruption and regulation, law and order, innovation and
technology, trade, and firm productivity. Show Less -

In China and in many other countries
there is a compelling public interest in the railway
industry. How do different countries try to pursue the
public interest in railways?... Show More + This paper finds common
elements of governance and institutional structure in eight
countries whose diverse railway industries collectively
carry about two-thirds of all the railway traffic in the
world outside China: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France,
Germany, Japan, Russia, and the USA. These common elements
are: the existence of a Ministry of Transport with oversight
and multi-modal transport policy responsibility; separation
of government policy and regulatory functions from the
commercial management of railway services; overwhelming
preference for company structures (whether private or
state-owned) to deliver railway services; multiple service
providers; and divisional or institutional separation of
freight from passenger services. China's railway
industry governance structure is not based on these
elements. But changes in transport competition and in the
scale of China's railway industry, together with the
desirability of a more coordinated national transport
system, suggest that now there may be useful lessons for
China from the international experience. The paper
speculates on three common policy 'pillars' upon
which China may wish to base alternatives for consideration. Show Less -

China's water and sanitation sector
faces challenges from rapid urbanization and
industrialization, urban diversification, large investment
needs, water scarcity, water... Show More + pollution, and ecological
degradation. This policy note addresses 'concessionary
finance.' It is intended to provide a briefing for
Chinese government officials who formulate policies for the
water and sanitation sector. This note is not intended to
provide recommendations on which policies to adopt, but
rather to facilitate understanding of the policy options,
how to choose among them, and where and how various options
have been used in practice. Good water and sanitation
services are essential for economic growth, public health,
and environmental protection. However, these services can be
difficult to finance. When utilities do not have sufficient
capital, they under-invest and this will adversely affect
the quality of services the utilities provide. Many
governments run targeted concessionary financing programs as
a method of helping utilities raise the needed capital.
International experience has shown that well designed
concessionary financing programs can additionally be
employed as incentives to successfully improve utility
efficiency, sector governance, or both. This policy note
draws on successful case studies from concessionary finance
programs in other countries. Show Less -

The World Bank, working together with
the Asian Development Bank (ADB), actively supports the
development of a regional power market in the GMS: Cambodia,
Lao PDR, Myanmar,... Show More + Thailand, Vietnam and the Yunnan Province
of the People's Republic of China. This report is part
of a dynamic process aimed at developing power trade in the
Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS), the objective of which will
be to provide reliable and economic electric service to
consumers, consistent with sustainable use of natural
resources. The report includes the following headings:
introduction; issues related to the current situation;
possible options and requirements for the intermediate term;
recommendations for intermediate-term decisions; options for
long-term trading in the GMS region; next steps; and conclusion. Show Less -

The investigation conducted by this
project concernt China power social universal services
include: the investigation on the actuality of the domestic
power social universal... Show More + services or on the other industries
and the research and study on abroad services. Through
research of the domestic power social universal service, we
could realize the actuality of the domestic power social
universal services, hold the scale of the requirement, the
characteristics of the region, and also the existing
problems and obstacles of the universal service,
furthermore, calculate the amount of capital that power
social universal services needed; then draw the successful
experience of domestic and foreign services to make
suggestions on the policy, regulatory measures and
implementation of programs which are adapt to the
development of China power social universal service. Show Less -

Since the early 1980s, China has begun
gradually integrating with the global system. In doing so
the country has moved toward its own unique brand of market
socialism,... Show More + which recognizes private ownership, and is
adopting market institutions and pursuing industrial change
within the framework of an urban economic environment. The
process of transition has now permeated every corner of
Chinese life and no organization has been left untouched.
Yet industrial organization in China-especially in the state
sector-has been slow to shed many of the distinctive
structural characteristics of the old line Maoist era state
enterprises. The main prong of the industrial strategy in
support of urban change is ownership reform that transforms
state-owned enterprises into corporate entities with
majority state ownership or places them wholly in private
hands, in the process also bolstering the incentives for and
the dynamism of the private sector. While the central
government spearheads the ownership reform initiative, in
the majority of cases the actual implementation is in the
hands of municipal, county, and prefectural governments that
must coordinate their efforts with other factors influencing
urban changes. This paper situates industrial change in
China within the context of urban development and examines
the interplay of broad reform strategy with local
implementation, and its actual practice by the reformed firms. Show Less -

In many countries the private sector has
been involved in financing infrastructure through
concessions under a public-private partnership (PPP)
program. PPP schemes,... Show More + however, are somewhat underutilized in
transition economies, where the potential financing gaps are
significant and growing, and there seems to be an enormous
potential for more private sector involvement in the
financing and operation of highway assets in these
countries. Institutions such as the World Bank can
contribute to enhance private financing of road
infrastructure through greater use of their guarantee power,
in addition to supporting, when required, the public sector
contribution to the construction cost of a PPP project
through loans. Partial risk guarantees are particularly
relevant in the context of seeking more private involvement
in the financing of road infrastructure. This paper reviews
potential applications of partial risk guarantees, the
required legal framework (for example, concession law) for
attracting private capital for PPP schemes, possible steps
for a country to launch a program of private participation
in highways, the concept of greenfield and road maintenance
concession programs, and the treatment of unsolicited
proposals. It also summarizes potential applications of the
World Bank Toolkit for PPP in Highways as an instrument to
help decision-makers and practitioners to define the best
PPP approach for a specific country. Show Less -

The objective of this report is to
present practical measures that can be implemented to help
countries minimize the economic and social consequences when
confronted... Show More + with power shortages. By reviewing the causes of
and responses to power shortages in Chile, China,
California, the Dominican Republic, Japan, and particularly
Brazil, this report analyzes ways in which governments,
utilities, consumers, and other stakeholders can deal with
the multifaceted aspects of power rationing. This report
highlights the case of Brazil as one of the best
international practices. Chapter two lays the groundwork for
dealing with rationing and distinguishes between three types
of power shortages as a basis for formulating effective
solutions. Chapters three and four examine case studies in
which power shortages have led to different rationing
responses. Chapter five details technological, financial,
social, and other factors distinguishing each rationing
episode. Chapter six compares quotas based on price signals
with rolling blackouts. Chapter seven presents a simple
rationing scheme based on energy quotas assigned to
individual customers. Finally, chapter eight offers 12
lessons about implementing power rationing and demand
response in a sensible way. Show Less -

China is the second largest energy
consumer in the world and the largest producer and consumer
of coal. Owing to its large coal resources, it is and will
remain in the... Show More + foreseeable future largely energy
self-sufficient, although crude oil imports have steadily
increased since 1993. In just 17 years, China has become the
Bank's largest borrower in the energy sector having
received about 7 billion dollars in loans to date. The Bank
has also carried out a substantial amount of analytical and
advisory services. Despite the amount of lending to the
energy sector, the sheer size of the sector in China has
made the World Bank, at least in financial terms, a
relatively marginal player. The Banks assistance aimed at
helping China's integration into the global economy. It
focused on removing bottlenecks to the country's
accelerating economic growth and on institutional
development (emphasizing technology transfer and capacity
building). After the major policy breakthroughs of the
mid-1990s in the power sector, progress on sector reform has
slowed and major policy issues in such critical subsectors
as coal, oil, and gas have largely gone unattended. To
address this, the Bank can choose to focus increasingly on
peripheral subsectors such as renewables and energy
efficiency where policy issues are less sensitive and
government buy-in more likely. A more difficult path will be
for the Bank to continue its sizeable financial support to
the energy sector but frame it within a truly comprehensive
dialogue on national energy policy issues. Show Less -

Russian oligarchs : a quantitative
assessment; by Sergei Guriev and Andrei Rachinsky. What do
firms disclose and why? Enforcing corporate governance and
transparency... Show More + in Central and Eastern Europe; by Anete
Pajuste. Corporate Governance in Poland: a History of
Experimenting and Learning; by Krzysztof Obloj. Corporate
Governance and Market Valuation in China; by Chong-En Bai,
Qiao Liu, Joe Lu, Frank M. Song, and Junxi Zhang. Do Good
Governance Provisions Shelter Investors from Contagion?
Evidence from the Russian Crisis; by Anete Pajuste.
Corporate Law and the Governance Mechanism in Russia; by
Ichiro Iwasaki. Enforcing Corporate Governance; by Erik
Berglof and Stijn Claessens. "The Outcome of Russian
Public Capital Markets is Not Assured" Interview with
William Goetzman. Ownership Composition, Corporate
Governance, and Performance: Evidence from the Czech
Transition; by Andrew Weiss and Georgiy Nikitin. Czech Mate:
a Case of Insider Expropriation; by Mihir Desai, Alberto
Moel. Discussion on the Threat of Minority "Squeeze
Outs" in Russia; by William Browder. "I Want to
Create a Mechanism for Transforming a Public Enterprise into
a Private One"; by Viktor Pleskachevsky. From Research
to Policy Challenges for Transition Economies, Challenges
for the World Bank; by Johannes Linn. Progress in Transition
and the Link to Growth; by Alan Rousso. Infrastructure in
Transition: Regulation and Private Sector Participation; by
Alan Rousso. Russian Rail Restructuring: Some Steps Taken,
Some Remaining; by Russell Pittman. World Development Report
2005: Findings and Implications for the Europe and Central
Asia Region; by Pradeep Mitra. How Slovakia Transformed
Itself from a "Black Hole" to an Investor's
Paradise; by Olga Gyarfasova. Czech Bankruptcy Reform: a
Light at the End of the Tunnel? ; by Ondrej Knot, Ondrej
Vychodil.Minimum Wage Increase in Hungary - a Radical
Measure with Mixed Results; by Miklos Koren. Show Less -

This note describes the existing
structure and activities of institutional investors in
China. It identifies key principles for building a solid
institutional investor... Show More + base going forward. The nation's
institutional investors are largely comprised of life
insurance companies and pension- and investment- fund
managers. In addition, trust and investment companies (TICs)
and securities companies offer their clients discretionary
asset management services. Overall, China's ratio of
institutionally- managed assets is small compared to
developed markets, representing around 10 percent of GDP.
According to some estimates, unregulated privately placed
funds may be roughly of equal size. The life insurance
industry is the largest repository of savings outside
banking, and is enjoying strong growth in premium income. At
present, life insurance companies are limited mainly to
investing in government bonds and bank deposits, but may
obtain CIRC permission to invest in other instruments, e.g.,
privately placed infrastructure bonds. The pension system
entails a pay-as-you- go (PAYG) first pillar, individual
defined contribution accounts as a second pillar, and a
voluntary contribution third pillar. In some regions, second
pillar accounts are used to cover shortfalls in the first
pillar. Overall, the prospects for significant accumulations
in the second pillar are limited; the odds are better that
the voluntary third pillar schemes could eventually
accumulate sizeable reserves. In addition, the National
Social Security Fund (NSSF) could become a major capital
market investor once a means is discovered for funding the
establishment of reserves. Show Less -

The role of small and medium scale
enterprises in growth and development is universally
recognized, and is demonstrated by the quantity of studies,
research, and literature... Show More + dedicated to the subject. Both in
developed and developing countries, governments have been
playing a key role in defining policies, programs and
instruments which support the development of micro, small
and medium enterprises. One of the mechanisms employed to
nurture small firms for more than two decades is
"business incubation". Incubators provide
qualifying new start-up businesses with a set of facilities
-- physical space, shared services, business and legal
advice, and financial inputs - to facilitate their creation
and assist them until "graduation", when they have
the capacity to "survive" in the outside
competitive environment. In this paper, an overview of the
status and development perspectives of the incubator
industry is presented, with a special focus on the needs and
challenges observed in developing countries. The role played
by national, bilateral and multilateral support in fostering
incubators in developing economies are also discussed. The
main lessons learned in business incubation, as well as
their adaptation to the needs of developing countries, are
presented in the final part of this paper. Best practices
regard the definition of the goals of the incubator, its
organization and governance, incubator sustainability,
admission criteria and procedure, the incubation process,
graduation policies, and measuring and evaluating the
incubation process. Show Less -

This study evaluates short- and medium-
term corporate governance issues impacting companies
involved in ownership diversification in China. It examines
problems associated... Show More + with governance such as cost and
framework design and makes recommendations concerning the
many facets of corporate governance. The study looks at
companies participating in the two main forms of ownership
diversification: listed companies and small and medium
enterprises whose ownership structure is dominated by
insiders. The focus is on the new mechanisms and
stakeholders emerging during the process of ownership
diversification and their role in corporate governance.
Recommended priorities for action are based on the following
guiding principles: 1) Corporate governance scandals in
emerging and developed markets indicate that there is no
perfect corporate governance model. An effective corporate
governance system should be capable of identifying
weaknesses before they develop into systemic problems. 2)
The institutional mechanisms of corporate governance
comprise a system that can employ alternative yet
complementary instruments of control to effectuate changes
in companies' behavior. Based on these principles, the
following areas emerge as recommended priorities for policy
action: a) alleviate the negative impact of dominant state
ownership on market discipline and on the regulatory
capacity of the state; b) building an institutional investor
base; and c) strengthening the role of banks in corporate governance. Show Less -

During the last twenty years, China has
seen the most remarkable period of economic growth in modern
times. There is cause for celebration, but there are also
new challenges.... Show More + China's very success has propelled it
into a new phase of reform, and that is the focus of author
talk. China's development in this period has been
characterized by a sequence of radical changes, although it
has also been evolutionary in the sense of building on what
went before. Where the territory was uncharted, the
government recognized that it was unknown and approached
reforms with a pragmatic learn-as-you-go spirit. It did not
matter whether the cats were black or white as long they
could catch the mice-and some experience was needed to see
which cats could actually catch the mice. The author might
very roughly divide China's reforms into three phases:
the agricultural reforms (1979-1985), the development of
rural industry and the township-village enterprises (TVEs)
with partial opening to foreign trade and capital (early 80s
to mid 90s), and now the third phase of deeper opening to
the global economy and growth which will be increasingly
driven by the private sector. The first two phases relaxed
constraints and released people's energies in
agriculture and rural industry. Now the challenge has become
the building of the institutional infrastructure that will
release the full productive forces of a well-functioning
market economy, while retaining the social cohesion which
has been a foundation of past achievements. Show Less -

Over the past two decades, China's
power sector has grown rapidly to become the second largest
in the world. This tremendous growth is the result of far
reaching re... Show More +forms that have transformed the centrally and
administratively run government department of the early
1980s into corporatized and business oriented power
companies at the national, regional and provincial level.
Nevertheless, the sector faces both structural and
operational problems which, if not resolved, will jeopardize
the hard-won progress. Some examples of today's
problems are: increasing power prices due to untapped
efficiency and inter-provincial and interregional trade
potential; discrimination between generators due to monopoly
and monopoly powers; and unnecessary impacts on the
environment due to the proliferation of small and highly
polluting units. The demands of the growing economy and the
needs of Chinese citizens must be met at affordable prices.
The Chinese government has therefore decided to accelerate
and deepen its reforms with the objective of fostering
competition and ensuring environmentally sustainable
development of the sector. The State Council has entrusted
the State Development and Planning Commission (SDPC) to
explore options to move forward with a new wave of reforms.
As part of a wide consultation, SDPC organized a workshop on
October 9-10, 2000 to discuss issues and problems facing the
power sector and options to address them in light of both
domestic and international experience. This report presents:
(a) a narrative summary of the presentations and discussions
held during the workshop; (b) two annexes summarizing the
results and lessons learned from power sector reform in U.K.
and Australia; (c) three working papers summarizing the
discussions of an expert meeting held on October 11, 2000
dealing with market size, transmission and new and old
plants issues; and (d) a paper summarizing the preliminary
results of the Restructuring and Economic Regulatory
Assistance Project sponsored by the Energy Foundation. Show Less -

Changing course: an interview with
IFC's Assaad Jabre. SME Department online.
MeetVietnam.com: E-marketplace to increase business for
Vietnamese SMEs, by John Mckenzie.... Show More + New facility seeks
innovative projects. On the ground: microfinance in
Cambodia, by John Brinsden; SEED in Kosovo, by Christopher
Miller; new equity funds in South Africa, by John James.
Partner profile: FUNDES Internacional. Meet the team. Show Less -

This report on the survey of private
manufacturing enterprises in Nepal presents the private
sector's assessment of the prevailing business
environment, and other matters... Show More + related to efficient business
operation. As such, it is one-sided. It is a synthesis of
the private sector's point of view, and does not
include the opinion of the Government. The survey was
designed to examine a number of basic issues, including
constraints in the policy environment, the structure of the
manufacturing sector, sources of growth, major impediments
to growth, factors determining enterprise productivity,
composition of the labor force and accessibility to finance,
among others. Recommendations suggest the need to develop a
more effective, regular and on-going dialogue mechanism on
issues pertaining to the business environment in Nepal,
between the Government and the private sector. To this end,
implementation of the One Window Service needs to be
improved, by sharpening its focus to deal initially with a
limited group such as exporters - and by extending it
outside of Kathmandu. An important implementation issue is
to foster coordination between all ministries to make the
one window service operate effectively. But, there is a need
for more and better training of tax officials, and in
addition, steps must be taken to make the duty drawback and
VAT refund system much more efficient. Tariff rates and
currency regulations must be stable so that firms can plan
effectively, while customs infrastructure must be improved
to handle the volume of traffic and secure shipments. Most
importantly, the Labor Law should be revised to uphold core
labor standards - but not to raise the costs and increase
the inability to retrench workers. Show Less -